In honor of National Peanut Month, we decided to forget for a moment about the peanut’s allergic attributes and celebrate it through the life and discoveries of George Washington Carver. This American scientist, educator, botanist and inventor was born into slavery in Missouri in the middle of the 19th century.

B. Jan 1864 (unconfirmed) – D. Jan 1943

His Mission:

With his own merits, honors and dedication he acquired the best college education you could possibly achieve in those times. His main goal as a researcher was to find alternate crops from cotton for farming families to have different forms of nutrition and personal sustainability. His techniques were intended to replenish soils depleted by continuous planting of cotton. Among the most commonly known “cotton substitutes” are corn, soy, sweet potatoes and peanuts. With the implementation of new crops, his research laboratory promoted applications and recipes of them to stimulate the farm-based economy of the South.

Peanuts are known by many other local names such as: earthnuts, ground nuts, goober peas, monkey nuts, pygmy nuts and pig nuts. Despite its name and appearance, the peanut is not a nut, but rather a legume.

Some Numbers and Achievements:

100 are the accounted for products born from his research that were useful for the survival of farming families during the famine of the early 1920’s, when cotton crops where destroyed by an epidemic.

He was accepted as a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England; met with three American presidents (T. Roosevelt, C. Coolidge and F.D. Roosevelt) who recognized his results; studied with the Crown Prince of Sweden, and had a dedicated newspaper column called “Professor Carver’s Advice”.

At Florida Center For Allergy & Asthma Care we are serious about our patients’ well-being and education of all things allergy and asthma; however, taking into account that February was Black History Month and March is National Peanut Month we thought it appropriate to feature George Washington Carver and recognize his amazing efforts and contributions to our nations’ history.

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Florida Center For Allergy & Asthma Care, established in 1974, is currently the largest allergy and asthma center serving South Florida with the help of expert board-certified physicians, all who have extensive experience treating adults and children alike. We offer our highly-specialized services in multiple offices throughout the tri-county area of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.